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Charles Woodson: A Toast to a Great Packer
Editor’s note: This is the last of a three-part series dedicated to longtime Green Bay Packers’ players who may depart this offseason. The first post, a toast to Greg Jennings, can be found here, and the second, a toast to Donald Driver, can be read here.
As far as I’m concerned, Greg Jennings and Charles Woodson have two things in common: for one, they’ve both spent 7 years in Green Bay, and they both were instrumental to the Packers’ 2010-11 Super Bowl run. Take away Greg or Charles, and there’s no ring on anyone’s finger.
Let’s backtrack to 2006. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the Woodson signing; it’s not that I wasn’t intrigued by the potential, but more so dismayed by the price. 7 years, $52 million for an injury-prone corner with documented attitude problems that other teams weren’t exactly chomping at the bit to bring in.
Boy, was I wrong. It didn’t start off so well for Woodson in Green Bay; he made no qualms about his hesitations about integrating with Northeast Wisconsin’s predominantly white community, and his relationship with Mike McCarthy began, we’ll say, on the wrong foot. But in his first year, he notched 6 interceptions, and all was well, giving the Packers their first defensive playmaker since Darren Sharper’s departure.
Donald Driver: A Toast to a Great Packer
What can you say about Donald Driver? I mean, this dude, his actions on and off the field, is set to go down in Packers’ lore, if he hasn’t already. A pro’s pro, Driver’s been the one constant, from the post-Mike Holmgren recovery years, to the Mike Sherman early playoff exits, through the Favre retirement (and unretirement) fiasco and into the Aaron Rodgers’ era.
Driver is far from the most talented wide receiver to don green and gold — and that’s not a rip on Driver, who’s, through all the years, kept himself in great shape — but I would put his drive (no pun intended) up against anyone’s. Remember his 61-yard catch-and-run TD against the 49ers’ defense, a unit coached by legendary Chicago Bears’ linebacker Mike Singletary, in 2010. Well, the video below should remind you.
I count at least five broken tackles there … and that he, you know, carried four San Francisco defenders into the endzone. And he did this all battling a bad case of food poisoning from some chicken wings he ate the night before. At age 35, in his twelfth NFL season.
If the NFL is a young man’s game, you wouldn’t know from Driver. A model of consistency, between 2002 and 2009, Driver only missed the1,000-yard receiving plateau once. Driver never grabbed the number of TD catches that you might expect, leaving those catches for guys like Bubba Franks, Javon Walker, Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson and, most recently, James Jones; but he had two 9-TD seasons and another 8-TD campaign.
A Toast to Greg Jennings
It’s no secret that Greg Jennings has played his last game in green and gold. The Packers, who’ve enjoyed the luxury of excess cap space for years now, are finally headed toward a more precarious financial position, with BJ Raji, Clay Matthews and Aaron Rodgers all due to make some serious coin within the next year. Jennings’ production has fizzled the last two years, mostly due to injuries, and if there’s any position Green Bay can afford to part ways with talent, it’s at wide receiver.
From 2008-10, there were few receivers, if any, better than Jennings. Once Rodgers took the helm, Jennings quickly emerged as the No. 1, assuming the mantle from Donald Driver, recording seasons of 1,292 yards and 9 touchdowns, 1,113 yards and 4 TDs, and 1,265 yards and 12 TDs. That last year, 2010, Jennings was money in the Super Bowl run, as well, notching two TD catches and a key third-down grab in the fourth quarter of a 31-25 win over Pittsburgh. In other words, no Greg Jennings, no Super Bowl.
But Jennings’ production has waned in the past two years. He battled groin and abdomen injuries throughout the year, missing 8 games. But when he returned, we saw glimpses of the talent he still possesses; he did drop 8 catches, 120 yards and two touchdowns on the Vikings’ D in Week 17.
